92 EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE. 



the use of heavy rollers, cultivators, and harrows is a 

 great help. The native plough is not so apt to out-dry 

 the land, but even with it, after four or five ploughings the 

 soil is usually in a more or less inert state. When the 

 land is ploughed in a good condition, three ploughings 

 are ample, if the land is ploughed too wet or dry it cannot 

 be pulverised with twice this amount of labour. A well cul- 

 tivated fallow should feel equally yielding under foot, 

 not alternately hard and soft, and it should be free from 

 weeds. The land is most easily cultivated after cleaning 

 crops, that is to say crops which have been fassed or 

 otherwise cultivated. Tillage is most difficult after 

 winter cereals. Land which is being prepared for sowing 

 seed in moist soil must be cultivated as quickly as pos- 

 sible to minimise the loss of moisture which is required 

 for the germination of the crop. If land has been 

 ploughed in a too damp condition, it should not be 

 pressed by the zahaffa or other implement ; but pul- 

 verisation is helped if such soils are harrowed directly 

 after ploughing. It is better to plough wettish land with 

 the native implement, as it is lighter and is less apt to 

 puddle the soil than European ploughs. After the soil 

 has dried, a heavy roller will produce the finest tilth. To 

 expose the largest surface of upturned soil to the atmos- 

 phere, the depth should be to the breadth as 1 is to 1*4 : 

 when the depth is fifteen centimetres the breadth will be 

 twenty one. However in order to be able to go deep and 

 still have a moderate draught, it is often necessary to have 

 the breadth a little more than the depth. In cross ploughing, 

 a broader and deeper furrow may be taken without the 



